Friday, June 16, 2017

Looking back moving forward

the time before




So Josh did have a life before Minnie, it finally settled in Minnie's mind as she watched him with his old friends from Kansas. Still she felt out of place.

They asked about Harley.

Minnie looked at them blankly. Did Minnie miss something from Josh's past.

"Oh, we..we call her Naddy now." Josh's smile was open. He told her he'd called her that when she was born. "I guess all I had ever wanted was a Harley then, but grandmother called her Nadine and well, it stuck."

Before Minnie could look Josh's way, all thoughtful, the young woman, across the long table said, "I can't believe Josh didn't tell me, about you."

"Well.." Minnie didn't know where to start. It felt she'd known Josh a long time, even though, she hadn't. Still, they'd been through a lot together. "Are..are you a friend..of..of Tina's?" Minnie cleared her throat, thinking how could she dare say her name.

"Oh..I..I did meet her once, I think," Irma told her she knew Josh when she was little.

"You, must go way back, then." Minnie was certain Irma must have been Josh's first love. There was a certain beauty to her that was far more than skin deep.

"I dunno..I guess, but I remember him, like a brother." Irma smiled. "He probably talks to my mom, more than I ever do." She looked at him with a bit of envy. "I don't get along with her."

Irma made it sound as if they'd been a band of misfits. "I think..we're both better off now."

Minnie kept even lipped. She would try harder to be friends with Josh's friends.

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